Being a Resilient School Based Clinician

UFT Clinician’s Appreciation Day

January 24, 2008

Andrew Livanis, PhD, BCBA

Long Island University - Brooklyn

Coordinator, School Psychology Program

Goals of This Presentation

• The job of the clinician in the schools is incredibly stressful and can be quite overwhelming.

• This presentation is designed to help school based clinicians:

• Begin to develop an awareness of resiliency.

• Assist in managing stressful situations at work.

• Identify and prevent the symptoms of burnout.

• Promote personal and professional growth.

However…

• I do not have all the answers.

• I do not want to tell you what to do with your careers.

• Really, I don’t want you all to think that I am part of this family….

General Outline

• Resilience in Children

• Resilience in School-Based Professionals

• Burnout – the ugly opposite of Resilience

Resilience:

the ability to deal with lifethe ability to deal with life’s’s challenges in a positive and challenges in a positive and

productive manner…adapting to productive manner…adapting to adversity.adversity.

What is resilience?

• Represents the ability to deal with life’s challenges in a positive and productive manner.

• Adapting to Adversity

• Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of stress -

What is resilience?

4. It means "bouncing back" from difficult experiences such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors.

5. People commonly demonstrate resilience.

What is resilience?

7. Underlies successful learning and healthy development.

8. Critical to understanding a person’s reaction to trauma or adversity.

9. Plays a central role in a person’s recovery after exposed to trauma or adversity.

Why is Resilience Important for Children?

• Resiliency is essential to success in school and life. • Adults can help children become more resilient. • Fostering resilience in children improves school

outcomes and reduces risk behaviors.

Resilient Mindset

Sources of Risk Identified for Children

DeprivationMaltreatment

Health issues

Neglect

ViolencePoverty

Mental health problems

Common elements in the research

Positive adult role models

Socialconnections

Committed & caringcommunity

Personalcharacteristics

Research suggests…

• Academic efficacy

• Academic self-determination

• Behavioral self-control

• Effective school staff-student relationships

• Effective peer relationship

• Effective home-school relationships

Resilient Classrooms…B Doll

Children need:

• To feel competent • To belong and feel connected • To feel autonomous and have a

sense of self-determination

Applying resilience to our professional careers

School clinicians’ risk factors

excessive workload or number of caseshigh student-clinician ratiosschool district policies & practicesinsufficient professional supervisionlack of opportunities for advancementlack of appreciationbeing a solo practitionerunidimensional practiceearly career status

Career development stages

Advanced Student (0 – 5 yrs)

Novice Professionals (5 – 10 yrs)

Experienced Professionals (10 – 15 yrs)

Senior Professionals (15+ years)

Advanced Students

The advanced student:

• Self-focused

• Rule-governed

• Little attention to context of situations

• See situations as bits of information

• Evaluates information against own experiences

• Frequently has anxiety, frustration, confusion

• But, hopeful and highly motivated

Novice Professionals

The novice professional:

• Mastering technical aspects, procedures, rules

• Increased consideration of context

• Needs help setting priorities, relevance of information starts to emerge

• Increased confidence

• Dependency-autonomy in conflict

Experienced Professionals

The experienced professional

• Automaticity in skills• Balances skills w/empathy and understanding• Has developed schemata/ sees relationships• Makes decisions easily• Engages in planning, goal setting, considers long-

term effects• Very involved and engaged in situations

Senior Professionals

The senior professional

• Has paradigms, multiple schemes

• Integrates across domains of practice

• Feels at ease with complex, rapidly changing situations

• Makes decisions using qualitative distinctions

• Very skillful, involved, engaged,

Protective Factors

• Professional competence

• Professional self-determination

• Professional relatedness

• Professional connectedness

Professional competence

Knowledge and skills

+

Effective management strategies

Professional Self-Determination

Professional Relatedness

Professional connectedness

Burnout – the Ugly Opposite of Resilience

Burnout

• Serious problem in the helping professions• School context just adds to the stress of it all.

• Those clinicians who experience burnout are likely to:– Leave the field altogether– Stay in the field, but operate at a reduced level of

productivity.

What is burnout?

• An interaction between individual characteristics as well as environmental variables which cause the following subjective states:– Emotional Exhaustion– Depersonalization– Decreased Personal Accomplishment

Multi-factorial nature of burnout

• Emotional Exhaustion – – Overwhelming feelings of emotional strain– Subjective feelings linking the job to feelings of

overwhelmingness.– Depletion of emotional reserve– Tendency to reduce involvement with clients and co-workers

Multi-factorial nature of burnout

• Depersonalization – – Tendency to view and relate to children and their

families in an impersonal, detached fashion.– Cynical attitudes towards children and families– Tendency to “blame the victim” for their issues.

Multi-factorial nature of burnout

• Decreased personal accomplishment– Subjective feeling of

incompetence– Thoughts related to not

making a difference– Conscious judgment that

efforts are not achieving the desired outcomes.

Maslach & Goldberg, 1998

How does burnout develop?

Emotional Exhaustion

Depersonalization

Decreased Personal

Accomplishment

Huebner, Giligan, Cobb, 2004

What types of things may lead to burnout?

• Personal Factors

• Environmental Factors

Personal Factors

• Youth– The younger you are, the more likely it is you will

experience burnout– Magic number is “10” years– Corresponds with the novice – experienced

professionals

Personal factors

• Youth– Has difficulty sorting the relevant from the irrelevant;

unable to respond to context of situations; – Sees situations as many bits of information; evaluates

information against own experiences; – Emotions--anxiety, frustration, hopefulness, confusion,

excitedness, – Highly motivated; anxiety can interfere with empathy– Unable to look ahead– May lack experience or skills to deal with conflict– May lack effective time management strategies

Personal Factors

• Behavioral tendencies– Low verbosity (introversion)– Low subjective self-esteem– Few non-psychology, non-education interests– Difficulties dealing with ambiguous stimuli

Environmental Factors

• Conflict with administrators, teachers or parents

• High intensity meetings (increased number of MDE, due process hearings, child abuse) or high intensity cases (severe behavior or DD problems, child abuse)

• Increasing legal requirements• Juggling responsibilities between two schools

Environmental Factors

• Inadequate assistance or beaurocratic walls

• Lack of contact with colleagues

• Insufficient recognition for the good work or prevention of problems.

• Lack of opportunities for professional enrichment.

Personal & Environmental Factors lead to:

• Role conflict

• Role ambiguity

• Role overload

How does a Resilient School Based Clinician Cope And Prevent

Burnout?

• Professional Competence

• Professional Self-Determination

• Professional Relationships

• Professional Connectedness

• Join professional organizations– Allows one to remain current– Allows for supervisory relationships to develop– Allows for collaborative relationships to develop– Allows for the sharing of difficult issues, and peer

mentorship

Role Clarification

• Role clarification– Identify what it is that you do and what you do not

do.– Identify what your responsibilities are and are not.– Do this all in advance, before problems arise.

Build Professional Resilience

• Develop strong, supportive personal/ professional relationships

• Be a life-long learner

• Have professional goals & move towards these goals

Personal Resilience

Positive Cognitive Style– Positive self-talk, view of self– Keep events in perspective– Optimism

Healthy living– Enjoyable/ relaxing activities – Good exercise and sleep habits

– Healthy nutrition

Nurturing personal relationships

Building resilience:

Something we do for others…

something we need to do for ourselves.

Special Thanks

• Rhonda Armistand, NASP President, for her assistance in helping me put this together.

• The Executive Board of NYASP, for assistance in facilitating my presentation here today.

• Ann Englesbee, for her timeless contributions to my presentation.